Chocolate peanut butter chip brownies

I always wonder how people like emergency medical personnel or bomb disposal experts manage to do their jobs properly. I mean, can you imagine trying to concentrate on the specific and difficult job you were trained to do, while all around you there is chaos, noise, and people calling out and generally distracting you? I wonder how they find that small piece of quiet space somewhere within themselves and inhabit that to filter out all other distractions to deliver the service they are trained to do. I also think that if the army or emergency services ever need trainers to design a training task and then recreate the kind of distracting circumstances described above as a dress rehearsal, I should volunteer.

Picture the scene. A suburban house in London. A summery braai/BBQ in progress in the garden. A slab of brownies baking in the oven for dessert. 21 guests finding excuses to come into the kitchen on the pretext of fetching a glass of water, a napkin, some salt, or a fork; when all the time the only thing they are doing is checking whether the brownies are out of the oven yet. Finally, I could wait no longer and had to open the oven door, releasing the irresistable aroma of warm, chocolatey goodness and luring the guests to the kitchen as surely as a mermaid lures a sailor onto rocks.

Clutching my tray of brownies protectively as close to my chest as the hot baking dish allowed, I managed to get it to the conservatory unscathed where I had hoped for a couple of minutes of peace to set up a shot and get some photos taken before the devouring hordes descended. Alas: no such luck! Guests circled like vultures, watching my every move, waiting impatiently for me to be distracted by an f-stop so that they could pounce. I kept trying to concentrate and pretend they were not there but it is hard to pretend a marauding hand has not really appeared in the bottom corner of your picture!! In the end I had to concede defeat and invite everybody to serve themselves (cue sonic boom as some guests practically broke the sound barrier sprinting for the brownies!). And unlike bomb disposal experts, at least I get a second chance to get it right, plus I get to eat my work afterwards

Until the mid 2000s, my experience of cookie chips was confined to dark chocolate or milk chocolate. But a trip to the US in 2005 changed all that. In the baking aisle, I found something astonishing: a mind-boggling array of baking chips from dark to milk to white chocolate, via butterscotch, cinnamon, peanut butter, mint, cherry and rainbow-coloured. Phew. My fancy was immediately taken by the peanut butter chips which I carried home with me in my suitcase and used in these awesome double peanut butter chip cookies. Every time I visited the US or had friends coming over, I would always ask for a bag of peanut butter chips for baking – but recently I discovered a far easier way to get hold of them: simply order from American Soda who deliver all over the UK. Easy! The hard part, of course, is to keep your guests off the baked goods

These brownies could not be simpler to make and pack a huge punch in terms of deep chocolatey flavour and peanut buttery goodness. Try to underbake them slightly rather than overbake them – you want the centre still to be a little gooey. To me, there are few things better that the combination of sweet and salty flavours that the cocoa and the peanut butter chips provide – try them and I am sure you’ll agree!

Using a mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and cream cheese. Add the eggs and vanilla a beat well to mix.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir into the wet ingredients until everything is moist and well-mixed, then stir in the peanut butter chips.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 45 mins or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out almost clean (a little bit of gooeyness is desirable, as I said!). Allow to cool for 10 mins or so, then cut into squares and serve warm with ice cream. They will also keep well for a couple of days in an airtight container.

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Hi Jeanne, Hi Carolyn, I love your blog! These brownies look so good! I live in NYC and recently started cooking. I decided to start a blog called “Cookin’ with the Kaptain” and was wondering if you would let me know what you think. Here is the link:http://bit.ly/rc9zoR Thanks – KK

Ah I so agree gr8 minds think alike…nothing feels better than a warm chunk of brownie and if it has peanut butter chips…double the fun..Thanks so much for letting me know where to buy..ive always wanted them

Oh yeah I so miss those chips of all sorts – especially these Reese peanut butter ones. The brownies look divine and moist and totally what I need right now! I also can relate to taking pictures under pressure and under the eyes of many. It’s a difficult job but like you said with such treats the great thing is you have a good excuse to bake them again!

I always love a good fudgy brownie recipe. I always feel jealous of my US friends as they can get hold of so many wonderful bakign items that are impossible to find here- such as the peanut butter chips!

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O lol Jeanne.. I can so picture you fending of the hordes of eager guests trying to steal your brownies.. Didn’t they tell you that you should attempt to shoot brownies only when there is no one in the house to even so much as smell them…? They do look gorgeous so I can see how they would be tempted to try and grab some. You did manage some good shots though!

those brownies sound great – I often photograph food with my two year old around me so I am used to photographing in chaos and I often let a hand or two feature on the blog – so I know exactly how you felt – though we ate out today and she was so good at waiting for me to take a pic before she ate her cake – true blogger kid! wish I could discover all the varieties of choc chips – have tried the butterscotch which were dangerously amazing – keep meaning to visit the USA food shop in Melbourne

Man, Jeanne, I leave the country and you slip these by me… well, I am pouncing on them. Wow! I have always loved the peanut butter-chocolate combo and what better than brownies? Yours look perfect! Mmmmm…. I want. You please make these next time I visit? And I promise not to grab before they are done baking or before you have snapped as many pics as you want.

I just made these and they came out great! I did adjust the recipe a bit since I didn’t have enough cocoa (I put 1/2 cup), but it didn’t seem to matter too much. I really liked that there wasn’t a crazy amount of sugar and butter since I’ve seen recipes where they ask for 2 cups of each and then a cup of chips. This recipe is a good combo of cocoa brownie taste with sweet peanut butter taste. Delicious!

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Jeanne Horak-Druiff is a freelance food and travel writer as well as a recipe developer and photographer. She is a South African by birth and a Londoner by choice who has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Please get in touch to commission work from her. Read More…